School board: Fairfield must update racial imbalance plan by July

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield’s superintendent and school board leadership trekked to Hartford to ask for help with a 17-year-old “racial imbalance” issue and returned with 120 days to make a new plan to solve the problem.

On Wednesday, the Connecticut State Board of Education ordered the Board of Education in Fairfield to amend its racial balance plan by July 3 to comply with a 1969 state law restricting public schools from exceeding 25 percent of the district-wide average of racial minority students.

The law originates from General Assembly legislation meant to prevent segregation within Connecticut’s school districts during a time when race riots were sweeping the nation, but education experts have said the law is missing modern methods of school integration.

The most recent version of the plan from 2022 outlined a school redistricting process that would resolve the district’s racial imbalance by the upcoming summer, but the Fairfield board halted the process in October after tossing out the scenarios they were considering.

The level of racial diversity at the McKinley Elementary School on the east side of town has placed Fairfield Public Schools out of compliance with the law since 2007 — a dilemma that parents and experts see as cause for potential revisions to the law. Racial minority students make up 56.75 percent of the school’s enrollment, which exceeds the districtwide average by 29.18 percentage points, according to state data.

“We’re looking at a school here that should be the model for the state of Connecticut,”

Superintendent Michael Testani said before the state board. “It is a truly diverse population with representation of families and cultures from around the world. I think right now if we acted. we would do more harm to the students of McKinley than do good because I think we’re able to meet their needs — their educational, social, emotional needs — in order for them to grow and be successful.”

Testani pushed back against the "tight" 120-day turnaround — a time period in which the board will need to revisit its approach to reshuffle school enrollment.

He outlined the trial-and-error redistricting work in Fairfield and asked for guidance on potential alternatives as he sat across from the 14-person state panel with Fairfield Board of Education Chair Jennifer Jacobsen and Vice Chair Nick Aysseh.

“I have to stay here and stand here before you and really say that the McKinley School community, if we’re going to do anything that is going to get them into the ‘racial balance,’ it needs to be done very carefully, very thoughtfully, and I think we need a little bit more than 120 days to successfully do that,” he said during the meeting.

But the state board cast a unanimous vote without issuing any recommendations for alternative solutions, aside from a few question about options the Fairfield board has already nixed, like removing a grade from McKinley or redistricting large blocks of students from each school. The situation in Fairfield drew some empathy from state board members, who acknowledged the district’s efforts in solving the problem before returning to their legal obligation to enforce the statemandated racial balance plan.